NEWSFLASH
ANTI-ERAP HACKERS TOY W/GOVT WEBSITES
Manila, Nov. 30, 2000 - Anti-Estrada hackers have evidently tampered with the Web sites of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Philippine Conventions and Visitors Corporation (PCVC) in an effort to show the world their sentiments against the present administration.
From late Sunday, November 26, to around noon Monday, November 27, Web surfers logging on to the sites at http://www.tourism.gov.ph, and http://www.dotpcvc.gov.ph were witness to a satirical take on the popular James Bond movie “The World Is Not Enough.” But instead of the dashing Pierce Brosnan gracing the picture, one would have seen the face of President Estrada deftly superimposed where the popular British actor’s image would have been.
The pranksters also changed the movie poster’s title to “The Brain Is Not Enough,” highlighting the President’s notorious handicap. This was top-billed by a banner screaming “Erap mag-resign ka na!” (Erap resign). The hackers further lampooned the President with a larger tagline stating “The Brain Is Not Enough,” perhaps for emphasis.
Not content with merely defacing the DOT and PCVC sites, the perpetrators also provided a couple of links to popular Philippine Web sites bobongpinoy.com and Philhumor (http://go.to/philhumor.com). Bobongpinoy and Philhumor are among a growing horde of websites that have been sardonically criticizing the President for his alleged bribe taking and mismanagement of government.
However, according to Janette Toral, author of the seminal e-commerce reference “The Digital Filipino,” it would be premature to claim that the two sites were involved in the hack attack. Anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of websites design would have been able to link the URLs (universal resource locators) of these sites to the page, she added.
Asked if she had any theories as to why the hackers chose the DOT and PCVC sites, Myca Acoba, head of the DoT’s EDP (electronic data processing) unit, said that the perpetrators may have chosen the two sites since these are the ones that probably have the most public exposure. However, she did not provide any figures on the number of visits the sites received every day. She also declined to provide any details as to how the sites could have been hacked.
The people at Infocom Technologies Inc., the Internet Service Provider that takes care of data traffic to and from the DoT and PCVC sites, were also stumped. The company declined to provide a statement regarding the incident at the time this reporter called their office, saying instead that the matter was “still under investigation.” However, a member of the company’s staff did tacitly admit that the situation was serious enough to merit the attention of the company’s chief executive officer.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was also caught flatfooted. The NBI, which figured prominently in the “Love Bug” computer virus caper allegedly pulled off by a college dropout early this year, was apparently unaware of the hacking incident. Asked to comment on the matter, Elfren Meneses, Chief of the NBI’s anti-fraud and computer crimes division, said that the agency could only act after complaints are filed by the concerned entities. According to Supervising Agent Palmer Mallari, also of the Computer Crimes Division, the agency has yet to receive a complaint from either the DoT or PCVC.
Meneses stated, however, that the law against hacking is clear. Meneses said that those who deface websites could be charged for violation of RA 8792, or the new E-Commerce Law. Under Section 33A of the law, hackers (defined as anyone who uploads a virus or alters the contents of a website) could face imprisonment from six months to the three years and a minimum fine of P100,000, or the commensurate amount of damage incurred by the victim (which ever is the bigger amount). The E-Commerce Law was passed by President Estrada in June of this year, during the height of the “Love Bug” controversy.
The President’s Web site, www.erap.com, also became victim to hackers earlier this year. However, that hacking incident was a relatively minor one compared to the recent DoT attack. The previous incident, which occurred in January of this year, only involved the insertion of allegedly homosexual innuendo in the text of the President’s page.
A reliable source in the NBI confesses that they have yet to find a lead on the hacking incident involving the presidential website. Nevertheless, the sleuthing agency was eager to air developments regarding the recently released Erap virus. (By Doy Roque , Manila Times)
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